Glossary of curling

Diagram that shows the number weight calling system as it relates to the ice surface. The tee line has been removed for clarity.

During a game, sweepers might call out numbers. These numbers indicate how far the sweepers think the rock in play will travel. This system is relatively new to the game and is often attributed[by whom?] to the Randy Ferbey rink since they were the first major team to use the system, but it is not known whose idea it originally was[citation needed]. 1 to 3 indicates a rock in the free guard zone, 4 to 6 the rings in front of the tee line, 7 being on the button, and 8 to 10 the rings behind the tee line. Sometimes, 11 is used to indicate a stone thrown so that it passes through the house and out of play. With this system, the sweepers can communicate more effectively where they think the stone will end up or the skip can better tell the deliverer how hard to throw it.

The 4-foot-diameter (1.2 m) circle in the house. It surrounds the centre area called the button. It is used as a visual aid only – there is no extra score for placing a stone within it

8-foot

The 8-foot-diameter (2.4 m) circle in the house. It is used as a visual aid only – there is no extra score for placing a stone within it; generally not actually painted – it appears as the empty space between the 12-foot and 4-foot rings

On a hit, refers to the shooter hitting the object stone on the opposite side from where the broom was placed. Since this imparts less speed to the object stone and takes less speed away from the shooter, it is a very efficient way of making a tick. This is seldom used for normal hits since it is harder to execute, unless necessary because a guard prevents using the other turn

Anti-freeze

A very rare and extremely difficult shot in which a stone is delivered so that it will come to rest behind another stone already in play, created the same effect as if one stone had been frozen to the other

Temporary curling ice made quickly on a hockey rink or the like, most often used by curling clubs without dedicated curling facilities; usually of lower quality than that of a dedicated facility, but when created for televised events or events with large numbers of spectators, the ice quality can rival or even exceed that of a dedicated facility

A board or other object behind the hack, used to stop moving stones; referred to as "bumper" in Canada

Barrier weight

Delivery speed that should come to rest against the barrier behind the hack. Synonymous with board weight.

Besom

The traditional name for the device used to sweep ahead of a moving stone. A broom.

Biter

A stone that barely touches the outside of the house, i.e. the 12-foot ring

Bite stick

A piece of equipment used to determine whether or not a stone is a biter; also known as a 'biter bar'

Blank end

An end in which no stones are touching the house, and thus no points are scored; in regular play the team that has the hammer retains it for the next end. In skins games, the skin for a blanked end is carried over. To "blank an end" means to intentionally leave no stones in the house so as to retain the hammer.

Blanking an end

Deliberately creating a blank end for the purposes of retaining the last rock advantage for the next end of play

Blast

A shot delivered with heavy weight and high velocity. A blast is usually intended to remove many stones from play or is used to break up and move around clustered stones. "Playing the blast" into a large cluster of stones is often a last resort shot to get the rocks split up when there are no other viable shots available.

Board weight

Throwing a stone with enough speed that it will come to rest in an area just behind the hacks – about 6 feet behind the house. Synonymous with barrier/bumper weight.

A participation souvenir, generally worn on a sweater; there is a sub-culture at any major bonspiel built around trading pins. Most curling clubs and many tournaments produce one, and they are usually not awards

Curling stick

A device that permits a player to deliver a stone while standing upright; generally used by older players, these are legal in most games.

A call given by the skip for the sweepers to stop sweeping a rock; a rock that dies is a rock that stops moving

Dish

State of a sheet of ice where the sides are slightly elevated compared to the center, so that a cross section of the ice would look like a cross section of a dish; this sometimes happens near the end of a week-long tournament because the pebbling motion tends to apply more pebbles to the side, while sweeping during games happens more often near the center and wears down the ice more in that region; when there is a dish, rocks will curl more towards the center and less away from the center

Double takeout / Double

A takeout shot in which two other stones are removed from play; a shot in which the delivered stone and one other stone are removed is not a double takeout

Drag

When two rocks are frozen, hitting the top rock at an angle creates a drag effect that affects the direction of the second rock; the friction between the two frozen rocks makes the first rock "drag" the second rock slightly towards the same direction; hitting the top rock on the right makes the bottom rock move more to the left while hitting it on the left makes it move more to the right

Draw

A shot that lands in play without hitting another stone out, as opposed to a takeout shot. Also refers to a game, e.g., “We have a draw at 7:00 p.m. tonight.”

Draw raise

A shot in which the played stone pushes a stone straight forward into the house

Command – called out by the skip to tell the sweepers to ease off their sweeping of a rock but to continue sweeping it lightly and slowly.

Eight-ender

An end where all eight stones score for one team – a very rare occurrence.

End

Similar to an inning in baseball; in an end, each team throws 8 rocks, 2 per player in alternating fashion; tournament style games usually run for 10 ends; games played at the club level usually run for 8 ends. Prior to the latter half of the twentieth century, a game consisted of 12 ends played in full.

Extra end

Equivalent to an extra inning in baseball; in the event of a tie after the prescribed number of ends, extra ends are played until the tie is broken.

A rock that is placed in front of another rock to protect it from being knocked out by the other team, or placed with the intent to later curl another rock around it and thus be protected; typically placed between the hog line and the very front of the house

Gripper

A rubber or other material attached to a curling shoe to improve traction on the ice; also known as an anti-slider; see Slider

Similar to a starting block in track and field, the foothold device where the person who throws the rock pushes off for delivery

Hack weight

The weight required to deliver a stone in order that it travels to the hack at the far end

Hackweight takeout

A slower played takeout that, because of the reduced speed, curls more and therefore can reach opponent stones that are hidden behind a guard

Hammer

The last rock in an end – a huge advantage; the team with the last rock is said to "have the hammer"

Handle

The part of the stone held by the player; used to describe the desired direction of rotation of the handle (and therefore the stone) upon release in a given delivery; "Losing the handle" refers to a rock which stops curling or which changes direction of curl while moving; See also No Handle, Reverse Handle, Straight Handle.

Handshake

Each team traditionally shakes hands with each member of the opposing team at the end of a match as a sign of goodwill. Unlike other sports, curlers can, and are often encouraged to, forfeit the game early out of sportsmanship if the score is badly lopsided or if a team runs out of stones. To signal their forfeit, the losing team shakes the hands of the other team. This can simply be called "shaking", as in "the Smith team shook after 7 ends".

Hard!

Command – along with "hurry" – shouted by the skip to tell the sweepers to sweep harder and faster

Heavy

A stone that is thrown harder than required and will probably slide too far

Heavy ice

Slow ice on which stones take more initial force to travel a similar distance as on fast (keen) ice (see keen ice)

Hit

Any shot where the aim is to move another stone; the opposite of a draw

Hit and roll

A takeout rock that, after making contact with another rock, slides (rolls) into a designated area

Hit and stay

A takeout where the played stone stays in the spot where it made contact with the stationary stone; also called 'hit and stick' or a 'nose hit'

Hit weight

Another term for take-out weight

Hog

See "hogged rock"

Hog line (far)

The line which the stone must completely cross to be considered in play

Hog line (near)

The line by which the stone must be clearly and fully released by the thrower

Hog line violation

Failure to release a stone before crossing the near hog line; a stone in violation is immediately removed from play

Hogged rock

A shot that comes to rest short of or on the far hog line and is removed from play

Adjustment to the crosswise distance between the skip's broom and the desired target area; for example, a player who feels that the skip's broom is too close to the target might request "more ice"

Icemaker

Person who is responsible for maintaining the ice, duties include, but are not limited to pebbling and scraping the ice

In-off

A shot where the delivered stone hits another stone near the outer edge of the sheet at an angle, making the shooter roll into the house; one of the most difficult curling shots, usually done as a last resort when there are no other options

In-turn

A shot in which the handle of the stone is rotated across the body (the elbow is rotated "in" to the body); for a right-handed thrower, an in-turn is clockwise, and the opposite for a lefty

When the rotation of a stone is very slow, i.e., less than one full rotation during the stone's slide; often the result of thrower error, they will usually curl more than a properly delivered stone; may turn into a No Handle or Reverse Handle

Lead

The player who throws the first two rocks for a team

Lie / Lies / Lying

The count of the number of stones of one colour closest to the centre of the button, closer than the innermost stone of the other colour. When a team "lies X" or "is lying X", that number of its stones are, at that moment, closer to the button than any opposition stone; were the end to finish then, the team would score that number of points.

Line

The path of a moving stone; a 'good' line indicates it is headed where it was intended to go; a 'bad' line has deviated

Light

A stone that is not thrown hard enough

Little rocks

Many clubs offer a Little Rocks program for children, with rocks that are roughly half the weight of regular 44 lb. rocks. Curlers generally move onto full-sized rocks around the ages of 10 to 12.

Losing the handle

A rock that is "losing the handle" refers to a rock which loses its rotation or which reverses its rotation while moving

Last Stone in the First End; in every other end, the last stone (or hammer) is determined by the scoring in the previous end. In the first end, some other system (coin toss, draw contest, record comparison) must be used to determine the advantage of the hammer.

A type of delivery, mostly found in Manitoba, where the body is kept very low to the ground and the leading leg is tucked underneath the body and to the side; this type is delivery is particularly efficient for hits but makes draws slightly tougher to execute, with the shoulders not being as straight and the eyes being closer to the ice

Mate

The player who discusses strategy with the skip behind the house and holds the broom while the skip throws his rocks; usually plays third; also known as vice-skip or vice

Measure stick

Equipment used to determine which of two or more stones is closest to the centre when they are too similar to know with visual inspection

A stone delivered off the broom too close to the desired target and therefore likely to curl past it

Negative ice

A shot in which the player curls the stone in the opposite direction in which the stone is expected to curve, due to significant defects in flatness of the ice surface; for example, if the curvature of the ice causes all stones to drift sharply to the right, a skip may request the shooter to aim to the left of the desired location and curve the stone to the left as well.

Never

Called during the sweep to indicate the stone needs to curl and the sweepers should stay off the rock

Nice weight

A term used by some Manitoba teams, similar to Control weight

No handle

A rock delivered without a turn, usually done in error; stones thrown without a handle often follow an unpredictable path

Normal weight

Normal takeout weight; faster than control weight, but slower than peel

Nose

The point on a rock closest to the shooter. A "nose hit" would be hitting the rock at this point, avoiding a roll.

A rock that is not obscured by another rock from the shooter's perspective; a skip will often ask the shooter how "open" a certain rock appears from the hack, with the rock being totally open, partially obscured (such as "half open") or completely covered; also, a term for any shot not involving going around a guard: an open takeout, an open draw, etc.

On the broom

A correctly aimed shot that starts out directly at the broom held by the skip; opposite of off the broom

Out of stones

A situation in which a team that is behind in the score no longer has enough stones between those in play and those yet to be played to make up the deficit; the outcome is now certain, and the game usually ends with a handshake once a team is out of stones.

A shot in which the handle of the stone is rotated away from the body – the elbow is rotated "out" from the body; for a right-handed thrower, an out-turn is counter-clockwise, and the opposite for a lefty

Small droplets of water intentionally sprayed on the ice that cause irregularities on the surface, allowing the rocks to curl. Also a verb; the action of depositing water droplets on the ice, as "to pebble the ice between games"

Peel

A takeout that removes a stone from play as well as the delivered stone. These are usually intentional, such as for blanking an end.

Peel weight

A stone delivered with a heavy takeout weight

Pick

When a rock's running surface travels over a foreign particle such as a hair, causing the rock to deviate from its expected path, usually by increasing friction and thereby the amount of curl

Pin

Spot at the exact centre of the house, officially called the tee.

Playdowns

Competitive play towards club, state/provincial, national, and world championships

Promote

Another name for a raise; usually means to raise a guard into the house and make it a potential counter

Port

A space between two stones just wide enough for a delivered stone to pass through

A shot in which the delivered stone bumps a second stone which in turn knocks a third stone out of play. Also called a runback

Reading the ice

When a curler considers how the condition of a sheet of ice will influence the path of a thrown stone, similar to how a golfer reads the undulations and texture of a green before determining where and how hard to hit a putt

Reverse handle

When a stone is thrown with a particular turn, but it eventually stops and begins to rotate in the opposite direction; usually the result of a pick or poor ice conditions. Sometimes it may even reverse twice in one shot, creating unpredictable shots that follow an S-shaped path.

Right off!

A call given by the skip to tell the sweepers to neither sweep nor clean the rock; as compared to off!, which tells the sweepers to stop sweeping but not necessarily to stop cleaning

Scots for match, game or competition, this is the term used for a curling competition between members of the same club or community, for example parish spiel; also used as an abbreviation for Bonspiel. Compare Bonspiel.

Spinner

A stone traveling with a rapid rotation. Stones thrown in this manner will curl only a small amount, if at all

Split

A draw shot in which the played stone hits on the side of a stationary stone and both move sideways and stay in play. Not to be confused with split the house

Split the House

A strategy of drawing to a different area of the house to prevent your opponent from taking out both stones

Stacking the brooms

Slang for socializing with teammates and opponents, often over a drink, after a game

A shot that bumps a guard out of the way without removing it from play, to avoid violating the Free Guard Zone Rule; usually played with lead rocks late in a game to prevent the trailing team from setting up a steal

At professional levels sweepers use a timer to measure the time between the start of the delivery and the rock hitting the hog line, and will then call out that time as an indicator of the shot's weight. "Time" can also refer to the amount of time left on the game clock

The amount of speed with which a rock is delivered; more weight corresponds to a harder throw. When used in a phrase such as "tee-line weight", it refers to the delivery speed required for the rock to come to rest on the tee-line.

Wick

A shot where the played stone touches a stationary stone just enough that the played stone changes direction

Wide

A stone delivered off the broom to the side away from the desired target, and therefore unlikely to curl far enough to reach it